Edgar Degas. Lithography. Art Ahead of the Time

Original works by Edgar Degas, are now in Liepājas muzejs and is realized in partnership with Collection Kesauri. Exhibition is featuring 34 original works of greatest master of our time.-

Degas created the series of monotypes made 1877–78 to illustrate Degas' close friend, writer and librettist of Ludovic Halévy’s book, La Famille Cardinal, a satire of social-climbing ballet dancers, controlling stage mothers and the backstage sex-trade. Since Halévy narrated the book in the first person, Degas included him in nine of the illustrations. Theodore Reff suggests that Halévy did not publish his friends monotypes because, "On the whole, Degas' illustrations are more a recreation of the spirit and ambience than authentic illustrations".

When the portfolio of monotypes and drawings related to the project appeared as one lot in the 1918 sale of prints from the artist’s estate, it was said to consist of 37 monotypes, according to the catalogue, including eight retouched with pastel, thirty countertypes (actually, second impressions), and eleven drawings. However, the portfolio was withdrawn from sale and most of its contents were deposited in 1925 with Durand-Ruel. On March 17th 1928, the portfolio was sold, again as one lot, for extraordinary sum of 408 500 Fr, at the sale organized by Marcel Guerin at which the principal buyers were Guerin himself, the publisher Auguste Blaizot, who also acquired the reproduction rights, and the collector David-Weill. Seven monotypes and drawings accidentally are removed from the portfolio before it had been left with Durand-Ruel were sold at auction separately on 25 June 1935.

In 1938, the monotypes were finally published by Blaizot as etching illustrations. These etchings, hand-pulled by Maurice Potin, have been documented by leading Degas scholars Adhemar and Cachin, E. P. Janis and Jean Boggs. The edition is limited to only 350 copies.

Degas devoted several monotypes to one episode, working his way trough varying compositions and refining visual effects. Viewed together, the sequences of illustrations showing the same scene from different angles, from a distance, and close up achieve a curious cinematic quality that would have been lost in a book.

Etchings from suite La Famille Cardinal are particularly important because many of the original monotypes from Edgar Degas have vanished. These etchings from this suite remain the only documentation of their existence!

Edgar Degas (Hilaire Germain Edgar DE GAS) (1834-1917) is one of the 19th century’s greatest painters, draftsmen and printmakers and an innovative sculptor and photographer. Degas created readily-saleable small-scale works in pastel, gouache and distemper, media that allowed him to work more rapidly. His subject matter included dancers, theater scenes, café-concerts, brothel scenes and nudes, along with portraits of friends.